Diesel prices headed up for the 12th time in the last 13 weeks, according to data released by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
With a 2.6 cent gain to $2.297 per gallon, this tops last week’s $2.271 per gallon as the highest price to date for 2016 and now also stands as the highest price since the week of December 14, when it was at $2.338 per gallon.
Since diesel eclipsed the $2 per gallon mark, hitting $2.021 during the week of March 7, it has gone up a cumulative 27.6 cents.
On an annual basis, the average price per gallon is down 60.7 cents.
Prior to increases in 12 of the last 13 weeks, diesel was down for several weeks.
Shippers said that the decreases in diesel costs over the last several months is beneficial from a financial perspective, and after several years of high fuel costs, many shippers began tracking diesel much more closely.
In the past, diesel had cost more than gasoline because U.S. refineries export much of their diesel output. That leaves less available for the domestic market, and federal taxes are higher for diesel than for gasoline. But as gasoline demand has risen around the world, refineries are running full out worldwide to meet that demand, resulting in a relative glut of diesel fuel, experts say.
At the recent NASSTRAC conference, American Trucking Associations chief economist Bob Costello said that what industry stakeholders should look at when viewing fuel prices is the directional forecast, rather than a specific price forecast.
“If crude oil prices get to $50 or $60 per barrel, what are the fracking companies going to do? They are going to start producing again,” he said. “I do think there is a new ceiling on fuel prices that was not there before, with the caveat there being that there can be [unpredicted] things that could happen in many parts of the world that produce oil, which can have a big impact.”
The Department of Energy’s Short-Term Energy Outlook recently called for 2016 diesel prices to average 2.27, with 2017 to head up to 2.64, with West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil pegged at $40.32 per barrel in 2016 and $50.65 in 2017.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil headed up 3.3 percent to $47.72 on the New York Mercantile Exchange for its highest level since mid-November.